Today was the day. Izuku had been working at Sir Nighteye's agency for one week and it was finally time for the operation to begin. He and Hitoshi were dressed in their hero costumes as they stood in the lobby of the Nighteye Agency and waited for their guests to arrive so that they could escort them to the meeting room on the second floor. Sir had finally decided that they had enough information to act on, and thus had sent out a request to several different heroes to officially collaborate on the case. He hadn't explained which heroes, but Izuku had a pretty good idea of what to expect given that he'd specifically requested heroes with niche skill sets that could only really be fulfilled by certain individuals. Thus, Izuku was expecting some of the top ten to appear. That was a rush itself, aside from the knowledge that things were finally going to be speeding up. Knowing that the mission was almost at its end gave Izuku, and Hitoshi by the looks of it — he'd been wide awake well before Izuku that morning — a massive increase to his enthusiasm. His mood had been slowly getting worse and worse over the last few days, so it was much appreciated. Lemillion, who had asked Izuku to just call him Mirio when they were sparring as friends and not strictly on the clock as coworkers, did not hold back even in a training match. The bruises didn't help him get excited for how much he'd grown even just in the last few days; Izuku had actually managed to win more matches than he lost toward the end of their few days together.
The first hero through the door was Aizawa, dressed in his hero costume — the classic black jumpsuit, utility belt, and binding cloth that Hitoshi had based his own costume on — with Midnight in tow, her hero costume as inappropriate as ever. Izuku and Hitoshi stiffened when they came face to face with their teacher, but he waved away their nerves and greeted them as he normally would — with a lethargic grumble.
"I assume that Sir Nighteye was able to manage you without tearing his hair out?" Aizawa asked.
"Very funny," Hitoshi mumbled.
"I know," Aizawa said, not a hint of amusement on his face.
"How have you two been, though? For real," Midnight asked.
"We've been making a lot of progress," Izuku said seriously. "We've been doing our best to clean up the mess we made and get stronger so that it doesn't happen again."
"That's good to hear. I figured there was a fifty-fifty chance that Nighteye got you to crack. He did try, didn't he?" Aizawa asked.
"Yeah," Izuku sighed. "But I think we're good now."
"You're better than good, boys! Now that we're here, you can rest easy. We're here to back you up!" Midnight said with a grin.
Aizawa and Midnight went up to the meeting room without further delay, after being told where to go by Izuku and Hitoshi. The next hero to arrive was Selkie, who brought Tsu along with him. Izuku pointed Selkie toward his destination while Hitoshi and Tsu snuck in a hug behind his back. It looked awkward, though, since Tsu seemed to have stopped growing at just under five feet tall, and Hitoshi had only gotten taller since they'd started dating, so he had to bend down at an angle to embrace his partner. Unfortunately, Selkie turned back around to address his intern and saw their greeting, and promptly abandoned the tough guy persona he apparently put on for the news and started fawning over Tsu, who pushed their boss toward the meeting room while he gushed over their relationship. The next to arrive were a shock to Izuku, as Gran Torino and Detective Tsukauchi walked through the doors and greeted them.
"Eraser told us that you said the Children of All For One might be involved in this. That case is ours, so of course we'd come. Did you think we were just sitting around and twiddling our thumbs waiting for a kid like you to do our jobs for us?" Gran Torino said.
"No, of course not!" Izuku said with a smile, before sending the two men up to the meeting.
It was then that Death Arms arrived, with Ochako in tow. Her costume seemed to have been upgraded since the last time he'd seen her, as her gauntlets were thicker and had a hook protruding from the top of her wrist. Was it a grappling tool? Izuku almost got lost in thought, but Death Arms greeting him brought him back to reality.
"Hey, kid. It's been a while," Death Arms said. "If Uravity hadn't told me, I wouldn't have thought you were the same kid I met those times on the street."
"It's an honour to actually work with you this time, sir!" Izuku said, grinning like an idiot when he got to shake Death Arms' hand. He barely stopped himself from muttering under his breath about it. He'd met the man before a couple of times, both before and after starting at UA, but getting to really work with the most famous hero that regularly patrolled his neighbourhood back at home was something he never thought he'd get to do.
As Hitoshi told Death Arms where to go, Ochako slid over to him. "Hey."
"Hey, how's your work study?" Izuku asked.
"Not bad. It would be better if we'd gotten to team up sooner. What's this about, anyway?" Ochako asked right back.
"I'm sure Sir will lay it all out in the meeting," Izuku said, giving Ochako a serious look to make sure she knew that things were getting real. She nodded and held his hand just long enough to give it a squeeze before running off with her boss. He wished he could've seen her sooner, but then that would mean unearthing all the terrible things they'd discovered even quicker than they had, and Izuku didn't think that they would've been able to handle those blows back-to-back. They barely had bounced back from learning the truth as it was.
A few more heroes arrived, like the relatively unknown Kesagiri Man and Mister Brave, who Hitoshi didn't recognise but Izuku greeted by name. About a dozen different heroes, both local and from all across Japan, ended up passing Izuku and Hitoshi by, and getting to meet all sorts of cool heroes like Rock Lock and Manual — even if Manual had Izuku stammering at the realisation that he was the hero who Tenya Iida had been interning with when he'd died — gave Izuku the ability to smile without faking it. This was the part of being a hero that he might have been looking forward to the most — having the honour of meeting so many people who did so much good for the people of Japan. It was like all of his childhood fantasies come true. To elevate Izuku even further into his own personal heaven, the number ten hero Ryukyu arrived. Her costume was just as cool in person as it was on television — the red qipao with yellow claw markings and the headband with dragon wings protruding from the sides and claws covering one of her eyes. As well, she had brought a sidekick, who introduced herself as Nejire Chan, and Izuku thought he recognised her from last year's UA sports festival from the third years' events. Getting to work with all these awesome heroes was sure to put Izuku in a coma if he didn't contain his excitement.
Then, the most famous of the heroes in attendance arrived. Best Jeanist, the number three ranked hero after Endeavor and Hawks, strolled through the doors with a seething Katsuki Bakugo following close behind. Best Jeanist, as usual, was groomed to perfection, his all denim outfit with the iconic high collar almost radiating coolness. Katsuki, strangely enough, was also similarly styled. In a turn of events that had Hitoshi cracking up as soon as he laid his eyes on the boy, Katsuki's famously spiky hair had been flattened and combed to match Best Jeanist's own hairdo. Izuku felt bad for having to keep his face neutral, but Hitoshi wobbled on his feet as all the air left his lungs in an instant in a long, high wheeze.
"Shut it, Eyebags!" Katsuki yelled, causing a few crackling pops to ignite in his palm. "This wasn't my choice!"
"Kacchan, it's not bad!" Izuku said, putting his hands up to avoid a fight.
"Don't you say anything either, Deku!" Katsuki roared. "Leatherface over here made me!"
"First of all, your reference is incorrect. Secondly, you were fine with it when Mirko was looking," Best Jeanist said with a humorous edge to his voice.
"Shut up, Longneck!" Katsuki yelled. "You two!" He pointed at Izuku and Hitoshi. "Where the hell is this meeting? Let's just get this stupid thing over and done with already!"
The four of them — including Best Jeanist, Izuku wasn't quite able to stop himself from freaking out over that — went up to the meeting room and arrived to find the dozen or so heroes that had assembled, in addition to their interns and sidekicks if they had brought any, talking amongst themselves and mingling. Sir Nighteye sat at the head of the table, with Bubble Girl, Centipeder and Lemillion sitting on his left and two seats available at his right. Izuku and Hitoshi left Best Jeanist and Katsuki to find their own seats and took their place with the rest of Nighteye's team as he stood up.
"Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I assure those who travelled to attend this meeting that it will be worth your while," Sir Nighteye said, his powerful voice bouncing off the walls in a slight echo. "See, my team and I have recently come to the conclusion that there is a powerful force gathering strength where we can't see them, and that this force must be defeated before they can unleash the power that they are amassing. Bubble Girl, please elaborate."
Sir Nighteye sat down and Bubble Girl took over, reading from a report on her handheld device. "For months now, the Nighteye Agency has been investigating the Shie Hassaikai, a yakuza clan and designated villain organisation. We began to look into them after Sir noted a pattern. Assault victims without a scratch on them, sometimes in better shape than they'd been before. Mysterious disappearances that leave no evidence or remains behind — people would enter buildings and then never leave, and never be found inside. Disasters and accidents that are perfectly normal and safe once a hero arrives to help. These miraculous events have been occurring in this city for years, and they all tend to happen in the wake of one man. Kai Chisaki is the head of the Shie Hassaikai, though he goes by a different name when dealing with third parties — Overhaul, the name of his Quirk which can break down matter and reshape it to his will. Over the last few months, Chisaki has begun to make contact with other villain groups, such as Team Reservoir Dogs, a group of bank robbers that pose little threat overall, Cider House, thieves of a similar nature, and the infamous Chimera and his posse, and a new player on the scene, a group called the Children of All For One."
Murmurs began spreading among the heroes present. Izuku and Hitoshi gave each other a look, and nodded to each other. This was good, the Childrens' existence was no longer secret. That didn't stop the worry from filling Izuku until his chest felt tight, though, because the assembled heroes then started muttering about All For One, the big scary guy who made All Might retire. From across the room, Ochako, Katsuki and Tsu shot looks at Izuku and Hitoshi, which they subtly responded to with minute nods and serious stares.
"So, what? A yakuza group's trying to take a big swing now that the Symbol of Peace is gone. We can handle that!" Rock Lock said with a laugh.
"That isn't all," Sir Nighteye said. "Nexus, may I ask you to explain the Hassaikai group's true danger?"
Izuku snapped his gaze over to Nighteye, who nodded gravely. He hesitated to stand up, but when Hitoshi lightly punched him in the arm, he was forced to do something. He looked out upon the heroes assembled, the two top ten pros included, and his mouth dried up. Why did Sir want him to present this information? Centipeder, or even Nighteye himself would be able to give a more comprehensive review. Izuku wrung his hands together to stop them from shaking. He had to say something. Ochako gave him a smile, and Tsu nodded slowly, which made the ability to form words come to him after a moment of stammering wordlessly. Katsuki glared at him as he tried to find the words, and that combined with another prompt from Hitoshi, who gently stepped on his foot underneath the table, gave him the push he needed to find his voice.
"They have a weapon," Izuku said, legitimately surprised that his voice came out even. "If you get shot with one of their special bullets, you lose your Quirk."
Another wave of murmuring erupted from the heroes. "There have been technologies that interrupt Quirks in the past," Best Jeanist said, silencing the chatter. "Collars and prisons that counter Quirk activation were commonplace in the age of chaos that preceded our finely woven hero society."
"This isn't like that," Izuku said, somehow finding the strength to avoid cringing at contradicting such a highly ranked hero. "Those measures were temporary, and even they didn't work to contain powerful enough Quirks. No matter how strong your Quirk is, if you get hit with one of these darts, your Quirk isn't suppressed, it's gone."
"For how long?" Ryukyu asked, leaning forward and leaning on her elbows as she honed her attention.
"Forever," Izuku said.
The reaction to that was precisely what he'd thought it would be. Confusion, fear, anger, it all spread through the heroes like it was infectious, and soon they were debating amongst themselves whether it was even possible or not to permanently take someone's Quirk. The example proving the possibility, All For One, was quickly thrown out there by Katsuki, but he was then countered by Rock Lock, who brought up the fact that All For One was still in jail and couldn't be the one behind the bullets. Sir Nighteye stood, and motioned for Izuku to sit, which silenced the arguments in an instant. Nighteye looked around the room and sighed.
"I know that it is troubling to be met with this hard reality, but it is indeed reality. We have verified that this is the ability that the bullets hold," Sir said. "We had a number of samples brought to us by Nexus and Hypnos, and we were able to confirm that the chemical mixture inside has the ability to render a person completely Quirkless once injected into a human."
"How can something like that even exist?" Manual asked.
"Do you know what's inside the bullets that allows them to do that?" Best Jeanist asked, as shrewd as ever.
"Yes. The power that the bullets possess is not theirs alone," Sir Nigheye said with a grim tone. "A person's Quirk is responsible for their ability to delete — no, destroy Quirks. It's our belief that a seven year old girl named Eri is being held by the Shie Hassaikai in order to use the bullets as a delivery mechanism for her Quirk."
"A Quirk that negates other Quirks, huh?" Aizawa said, speaking up for the first time.
"Yes, that is why I asked that you assist us, Eraserhead. Can you tell us that you've ever met another person with your power?" Nighteye asked.
"Nope, sorry," Aizawa said simply. "The only other people that I know of with Quirks that affect other Quirks — experts call them Meta Quirks — are a hero student at UA who is currently on a work study with his classmate, and the Scourge of Kamino himself, and neither of them have the power to erase like me."
"As expected, but I still needed to ask," Sir said. "Worry not, heroes. There is an antidote to this Quirk-destroying drug that Chisaki and his men have created. We have one dose, along with one of the Quirk-deleters. I do still urge you to be careful and to avoid getting hit by the rounds, but know that we have some ability to cure you should you fall victim to this Quirk-destroying bullet. We also have the ability to use any other antidotes that may be confiscated from the Shie Hassaikai themselves."
"I still don't get it. How does the girl's Quirk work through the bullets?" Rock Lock asked.
"Blood," Nighteye said without hesitation. Some of the heroes present, Ochako, Tsu and Ryukyu in particular, flinched. Katsuki stared at Nighteye with wide eyes, and Aizawa and Midnight both had dark looks on their faces. "The girl's blood is combined with Trigger, as well as a few other key substances, and that is what produces the Quirk-destroying bullets."
"They're torturing a little girl?" Tsu croaked.
"Who would do such a thing?" Nejire Chan asked.
"Kai Chisaki," Lemillion bitterly spat.
"Overhaul," Izuku echoed.
"I assume you have a plan to put a stop to this operation as soon as possible," Best Jeanist said.
"Yes," Sir said. "That is why I have asked you all to meet today. I would like each of you and your agencies to assist in preparing for a raid on the Shie Hassaikai compound here in the city."
"Whatever you need," Death Arms cheered.
"Yeah, we're down to help out. My last question, though, is why these kids are part of this," Rock Lock said.
The heroes all suddenly turned their eyes toward Izuku, Hitoshi, Ochako, Tsu and Katsuki. Everyone except for their mentors and teammates shot evaluating glances at the students, but they were all drawn to Aizawa and Midnight as they stood.
"I happen to be all these kids' homeroom teacher at UA," Aizawa said.
"And I teach them art history!" Midnight added enthusiastically.
"Not as relevant, but fine," Aizawa mumbled. He turned back to the rest of the heroes. "They're a pain sometimes, but they're strong, and they carry their weight. All of them were there during the Kamino Nightmare."
The heroes' criticisms of the students' presence were silenced with that one fact alone. Aizawa and Midnight sat back down, and Sir Nighteye took control of the conversation back. "What I want from all of you is to use your unique skills in shutting down the Shie Hassaikai's operations over the next week or so. Selkie, interrupt their export and import over the water, Ryukyu, take down any airborne routes they use to deliver product, Death Arms and Best Jeanist, secure grounded transfer vehicles. All of this is to back the Shie Hassaikai into a corner so that we may strike at them when they're vulnerable. The rest of you will be assigned in teams to help those three core strike teams. Am I understood?" A murmur of agreement rang out around the room. "Excellent. We may begin tomorrow. Prepare as best you can. I will send you all your designated allies shortly. Dismissed."
The heroes all nodded with resolute expressions on their faces, and a chill made its way up Izuku's spine as he finally processed that it was really starting. They were going to rescue that girl and dismantle the Shie Hassaikai's filthy business. He smiled, and knew that the amazing heroes that had assembled for the job would get it done.
On the roof of the building, Izuku and his friends sat off to the side while their hero mentors were mingling. Katsuki, Ochako and Tsu shared stories of the bad guys they'd fought since spring break had started. Apparently, Ochako had taken on a massive brute and multiplied his gravitational pull toward the ground so much that he made a crater in the street when he landed. Katsuki had fought a guy whose Quirk empowered him an amount proportionate to how much shame he felt. The guy had gone to a busy city street and gotten naked, and then gone on a rampage with his new strength. Best Jeanist hadn't been able to easily catch the man because of his nudity, so Katsuki had stepped in and taken him down in one big blast. Tsu quietly explained that they'd spent the week helping Selkie catch a crew of heteromorph squid villains who were running a human trafficking ring out of a dockyard in Osaka. Izuku did not regret missing out on that adventure. Tsu seemed disturbed by something, and Izuku didn't need to shoot a glance at Hitoshi to get him to notice.
"Are you okay?" Hitoshi asked them.
"I don't know. What kind of people are we going up against here?" Tsu asked with a deep frown on their face, which didn't look all too different from their regular expression, but those who knew them well could tell.
"Pure evil," Izuku said in a low voice as he stared at the concrete below him.
"How are you guys handling this?" Ochako asked, her gaze flitting between Izuku and Hitoshi.
"I kinda wanna punch some bad guys in the face right about now, but other than that, I'm good," Hitoshi said.
"Same," Izuku grumbled darkly.
"Is it …" Ochako began, but she paused. Izuku met her eyes, and they were fixed on his own. "Are you upset because it reminds you of All For One?"
The others looked at Izuku silently, and he sighed. It had been some nameless thing in the back of his mind before Ochako had put it into words, but as he thought about it, Izuku figured that she was right. "I can't stand waiting to save that little girl. She's being used for her Quirk. It's just wrong."
"Don't worry. We're going to make it right," Ochako said, placing a hand on his. It made his shoulders a little lighter to have that touch.
"Obviously," Katsuki said, getting a silent look of shock from the others. "What?" The silence continued. "I'm not a psychopath, you idiots! I know that abusing kids is bad!"
"Huh, colour me surprised," Hitoshi said with a smile that seemed a little harder to hold onto than usual. "Here I thought you only cared about winning."
"Shows what you know, Sleepyhead," Katuski grumbled. He crossed his arms, and anyone else would've called what he did next pouting, but Izuku knew better. "Saving people is winning. Every hero worth a damn has to know that."
"Yeah," Izuku said, breaking the others' silence.
Katsuki grinned. "We're gonna kill all these villain scumbags."
Mirai Sasaki was in a good mood for once. Why?
Over the next week or so after the meeting, multiple raids on Shie Hassaikai property and associates were conducted. A team made up of Best Jeanist, Gren-Aid, Death Arms, Uravity, and Rock Lock took down a convoy that had moved through the city and confiscated the valuables contained within, a whole crate of Quirk-destroying bullets. Unfortunately, throughout their entire preperatory operation, the heroes found no samples of the antidote. It was still just the one that Midoriya and Shinso had given him that very first day. The Hassaikai seemed to be playing that card a little closer to the chest. They arrested nine people confirmed to be connected to the Shie Hassaikai, and two more who had no previous criminal record.
Elsewhere, a team made up of Selkie, Froppy, Mister Brave, Kesagiri Man, and Manual raided a number of ports and docks on the coastline in and around Musutafu, managing to retrieve shipments of Trigger and other drugs. They arrested fifteen criminals who had ties to the Hassaikai group, and three more with no known affiliations. A fire started in one of the warehouses where fighting took place, but Manual managed to put it out quick enough that no people or items of interest were lost.
An unauthorised flight leaving from an airport in the countryside an hour or so outside the city was intercepted by Ryukyu, Nejire Chan, and Nexus, and inside the plane were seven of the Hassaikai's men and an assortment of drugs, both Quirk-destroying and otherwise. The Hassaikai members piloting the plane had attempted to go down with the aircraft, but Ryukyu, Nejire Chan, and Nexus' powers combined had managed to redirect the falling plane to an angle where they could force it to crash-land rather than just crash.
While all of those missions were occurring, a squad made up of Lemillion, Eraserhead, Midnight, and Hypnos patrolled the Nighteye Agency's territory in order to prevent both ordinary citizens and the Shie Hassaikai themselves from noticing any decrease in hero presence in the city. It all went according to plan, and in just four days, they'd taken down every attempt made by the Shie Hassaikai to evade the heroes' preparations for the big day. Mirai's strategy worked flawlessly. By the time that spring was well underway and March became April, they were ready. Eraserhead, Rock Lock, Tsukauchi and Mirai put their heads together and contacted their respective informants in the criminal underground, and found that the name of the Hassaikai had been blacklisted in the books of every major information broker. Even the group that Nexus, Eraserhead, and Gran Torino had been able to inform Mirai about, the dreaded Children of All For One, seemed to have left their associates to their own devices, as their secret rendezvous had stopped after the warehouse explosion. The Shie Hassaikai were the frog who'd hitched a ride on the efforts of more powerful forces than themselves, and now that heroes were coming after them, those scorpionic forces were stinging them and leaving them to drown.
So, Mirai was in a good mood. They were close to finally concluding the mission. On a more personal note, Izuku Midoriya had not turned out to be as worthless as he'd initially assumed — or, rather, hoped he would be. Famous heroes should not be so arrogant as to ignore that they were capable of making mistakes. The boy had achieved an output of twenty-five percent of All Might's famous strength the night before the raid was due to begin, and had even used every single one of his Quirks at the same time in an attack that hadn't landed against Mirio's permeable body, but would have been effective against everyone else. Midoriya was, contrary to Mirai's expectations, improving. All of the children were more powerful than he'd expected, especially Katsuki Bakugo, but Midoriya had been on par with the average pro hero before Mirai had used the mere suggestion of his Quirk to get him to really push himself. He was even stronger after Mirio had put him through the wringer non-stop for nearly two weeks. His reflexes had already improved. He was calling on One For All more easily, and he'd managed to somehow combine some of his Quirks into a new use. Apparently, he had the power to sense threats and produce hard-energy tendrils. Those two Quirks had combined in the heat of the moment during training to automatically catch Mirio's sneak attack from behind in the moment he became solid, therefore allowing Midoriya to counterattack. Those faster reflexes had already made him stronger than he'd been when he'd come to Mirai's agency.
The latest generation of hero hopefuls was looking better than ever. Mirai had thought when he was a young man that his own generation was the pinnacle of what Quirks could be. One For All had become the strongest power in the world already, and abilities such as Foresight, Erasure, Hellflame, and more were thought to be the absolute maximum extent of what Quirks could allow a person to achieve. And then along came Izuku Midoriya, manifesting seven Quirks out of what had previously been just one. Mirai would have been comfortable settling for the excuse that One For All had allowed him to do that, but then the other children he was friends with had followed his lead and pushed their own abilities far past the old generation as well. Looking into Midoriya's classmates had given Mirai something he hadn't had in a long time, since before the Kamino Nightmare that he hadn't truly ever woken up from. Explosion, Zero Gravity, Half-Cold-Half-Hot, Dark Shadow, Brainwashing, Hardening, Acid, Creation. They were all Quirks that had far more potential than anything Mirai had ever seen before. Izuku Midoriya had no limits with the powers he held and was yet to manifest. That was what had angered Mirai upon meeting him for the first time, how he wasted that limitless potential on copied moves and school festivals. Upon seeing the drive that Midoriya displayed during training, however, Mirai had come to see the boy differently. He had been able to briefly touch that thing within himself that had gone out nearly eight months ago, now. He'd had hope that things could get better.
He hadn't truly used his Quirk on Midoriya that night after their visit to Tartarus. He hadn't needed to. He had already decided that if the boy wasn't going to part with One For All, then Mirai would simply have to hasten his journey to mastering it as much as he could. All Might chose him. Mirai may have been bitter and depressed after failing to keep his best friend from meeting the fate he'd been able to see so clearly but alter so little, but he still loved All Might and wanted him to be happy. If that meant Midoriya wielding One For All, then so be it.
Mirai walked through the halls of his agency on the morning that the raid on the Shie Hassaikai compound was set to begin. It was time for this to end. Kai Chisaki was going to face the consequences of his actions. Eri was going to be free. Even if he had to give up his own life, justice would be served.
